`This is my Main Street', he said as he started off
That morning, leaving the town to the others,
Entering the high-woods tipped in pink
By the rising sun but still dark where he walked.
`This is the way,' he continued as he watched
For the great space that he felt sure
Would open before him, a stark sea over which
The turbulent sky would drop the shadowy shapes
Of its song, and he would move his arms
And begin to mark, almost as a painter would,
The passages of greater and lesser worth, the silken
Tropes and calls to this or that, coarsely conceived . . .


from `Proem', Dark Harbour
          

Mark Strand begins 'almost as a painter would': the spirit of Edward Hopper hovers near the large clarities of a poetry that gathers its energies widely, from the visible world and the world of languages. The visible world includes the unprovable reality of dream, making its  truths against the waking world. His first book was Sleeping with One Eye Open. Octavio Paz said: 'Mark Strand has chosen the negative path, with loss as the first step towards fullness: it is also the opening to a transparent verbal perfection.' This book gathers the best of his poetry, including poems from his most recent book, Dark Harbour.